World's best skimboarders compete at Balboa Pier

The world’s best skimboarders battled it out on Sunday for the 8th annual Oktoberfest Skimboard Championships, an event that drew competitors from around the globe to take on heavy shorebreak near the Balboa Pier.

A fun swell with waves in the 3 to 5-foot range – not to mention warm water near 70 degrees – made for the perfect setting for the competition, which was the last of eight stops on the United Skimboard Tour.

The two-day event brought out more than 30 of the top pros in the world, as well as more than 100 amateurs. World champ and last year’s winner Sam Stinnett was injured before the event, so the door was wide open for a new winner.

Dana Point skimboarder Austin Keen made it to the pro finals with airs like this. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MORE FROM THE EVENT.

Skimboarding is an interesting subculture of surfing, with a much different approach to the waves. While surfers might look at waves breaking directly on shore and pack their boards in their car to go home, skimboarders froth at the backwashed waves crashing right on the sand, seeing a perfect canvas to carve, boost air or tuck into barrels.

But much like surfing, skimboarding has in the past decade taken pages from its close cousin – skateboarding.

“There’s so much technical aspects now. Barrels are still considered to be the top-scoring waves. But when you can’t catch a barrel, there are so many technical maneuvers that are like skateboarding – like big spins and a lot of big airs – and judges score a lot of points for that,” said Brain Boyle, owner of Main Street Surf Shop and co-sponsor of the event.

In Orange County, there’s a few hotspots for the sport, and many of the world’s top skimboarders are from the county. Laguna Beach is the mecca for skimboarding, and the Wedge is one of the best – and most dangerous – skim spots on the planet. The location where the contest was held, at Tower A at Balboa Pier, is also a hot spot, Boyle said.

The sport is also interesting to watch, because unlike a pro surf contest, the riders are directly in front of the audience.

“The waves are a bit shorter, but for all the spectators, the riders are right here in front of you and it’s easy to watch,” Boyle said. “It’s a bit more difficult than surfing, because you have the drop of the board and you have to make those turns so fast. And the waves are so hard to judge when they are slamming right there on shore. They can be shifty.”

Steve Taylor, operations manager at co-sponsor Exile Skimboards, said the caliber of riders in the past 10 to 12 years has grown.

“Overall there’s such a melting pot of talent out there right now, anyone can win a contest,” he said. “Whereas before, there were one or two guys who would always win, and really it got to be pretty boring.”

Taylor said it takes a certain type of person to get into the sport: people who like the high of an adrenaline rush while sprinting toward a shorebreak wave on a 3-foot board. And you have to be someone who doesn’t mind a beating.

“This is the last contest of the year; all the cool pros are here,” she said.

Huang came with 12 friends from Taiwan, most who had never seen a big contest like this. The sport just hit Taiwan about five years ago, and now a few hundred people do the sport, she said.

“Most people live in the city; they don’t live places like Newport where you have beaches on every block. For me, it’s a 40-minute drive to the beach,” she said. “I saw it and I’m always into board sports like skateboarding, so I figured I’d give it a shot. And I love it.”

Huang is one of the few, but growing number of women in the sport. The Oktoberfest contest hosted both a women’s pro and amateur division.

“It would be awesome if more girls would skim. I understand it’s scary,” she said. “In the beginning, when you fall, it feels like you slipped in the bathtub. Once you get the hang of it, it’s faster than skateboarding because it’s less traction. It’s really fun. It mainly lets me forget about work.”

The main men’s final matchup saw Perry Pruitt, of North Carolina, against Austin Keen, originally from Georgia but now living in Dana Point.

Perry Pruitt tucks into a small barrel at the Oktoberfest Skimboard Championships in Newport Beach, an event put on by Main Street Surf Shop and Exile Skimboards. CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE MORE THE EVENT.

Keen wasted no time getting into an early wave during the 15-minute final, pulling an explosive wrap and ducking low for a barrel. Pruitt didn’t hold back either, pulling big moves and airs as the sets rolled in.

“It was really intense; it was a close one,” Keen said. “It’s probably the toughest competition for the UST events because all the best guys are out for these events.”

Pruitt, just 17, said he was nervous in the final, his first on the West Coast. He turned pro last May.

“It’s really intimidating. I just feel like a little kid compared to them,” Pruitt said.

Judges pick the top three rides of each rider.

“I think we were both antsy to get solid waves,” Keen said. “I felt like Perry was getting strong solid backsides at first. It took me awhile to pick out the good ones, but thankfully it came through toward the middle. It’s super close, I don’t even know.”

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony Sunday night, results are pending.